At what point do you draw the line between freedom of speech and a crime?

In 1967 the California Legislature passes the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, which makes involuntary hospitalization of mentally ill people vastly more difficult. One year after the law goes into effect, the number of mentally ill people in the criminal-justice system doubles.

That's what this all boils down to, in my opinion. He should have been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility long ago, and this whole sad ordeal could have been avoided.

“You don’t have a right to speak. You’re Black. You don’t have a right to be here. All you Muslims, Blacks, Jews—I will kill all of you.”

There's your line. Right there. Threatening speech is not, nor should it ever be, free.

Ask his defense attorney: JC's First Amendment rights trump everything else, never mind the fact that he was ranting hate on a crowded public bus/train. To me, this is like shouting "FIRE" in a crowded room, which is largely regarded as the limit of free speech, but what do I know? Ignorant booby fools show up at city council to hurl abuse and violent paranoid fantasies at commissioners, but First Amendment!!! Amirite? Gawd yes. Portland is as racist as any other American city, but that's not the basis for Jeremy Christian's free pass. He's crazy, and neither Portland nor Multnomah County has the will to do anything about the mentally ill and hateful denizens hereabouts. I'd like to point out that certain people are dead from this incident because they did stand up although there is no general agreement about what to do.

A combination of mental illness and racism, both issues that Portland struggles to deal with. But we don’t normally arrest people for them. They have to commit a criminal act first.

Incarceration is one approach, and it does shut down all discussion. Let's just watch it fester.

You cannot say that "Portland" tolerated this racist nut. You implicitly criticize train riders for not intervening in previous violent verbal attacks. But what eventually happened is that white people stood up for black people, they confronted a mentally ill, racist man and they lost their lives doing it. What failed was the police, and Tri-Met. Additionally, the liberal dogma that mentally ill people must be "free" to conduct their lives, without assistance or interference when they become dangerous is also a failure. The very nature of mental illness is such that people in the throes of it, have no ability to control their behavior. Additionally, the liberal denial that we have a HUGE drug addict problem in Portland, is also to blame.